Newsroom

Applications Available From Both Legislators; Completed Applications Are Due on May 2nd

UTICA -- State Senator Joseph A. Griffo of Rome and Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi of Utica announced today that the New York Conference of Italian-American State Legislators is again accepting applications for four $2,000 scholarships that will be awarded June 9th at its annual Legislative Conference Day.

ALBANY – Sen. Joseph A. Griffo called on the federal government to help New York fix its aging infrastructure after years of underfunding and this past winter’s extreme conditions.

“The Times-Union recently declared this ‘the worst winter in years for potholes and general road decay’ – and I couldn’t agree more,” said Griffo, R-Rome. “It’s simple ‘frozenomics.’ Local governments maintain roads that sustain more than 63 billion miles of travel. Governments at all levels have underfunded the upkeep of those roads. Now motorists are paying for it.”

I want to thank all of those who are co-sponsoring this, especially Senator Parker who has carried this bill in the past. I appreciate their efforts as well as Assemblyman Dinowitz.

Elections are the foundation of our democracy. In order to have the most representative government possible, we need a system that both attracts voters to participate in the process and requires candidates to deal with all people on all issues.

That is not the current scenario in which we find ourselves every four years. Potential presidential candidates concentrate more than two-thirds of their advertising budget and two-thirds of their campaign stops in just five states. Almost 100 percent of their message is seen in approximately 16 “battleground” states.

ORISKANY - State Senator Joseph A. Griffo of Rome and Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi of Utica today announced that they each recently awarded the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office with a total of $45,000 in funding that is being used for equipment to fight crime in the region.

ALBANY—A group of 13 Republican state senators has signed off on a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo asking him to ensure upstate hospitals get a share of $8 billion in federal Medicaid waiver funds.

While the state and federal government reached a broad outline of an agreement more than a month ago to give New York state $8 billion over the next five years to transform its hospitals, that plan has not yet been finalized, in part because of continuing negotiations over which hospitals will qualify to receive the money, particularly over the definition of so-called “safety-net” hospitals.

ALBANY - Local governments have been dealing with skyrocketing health insurance costs for years. Sen. Joseph A. Griffo, R-Rome has introduced a bill (S6633) to allow municipalities such as towns, villages, and school districts to join county self-insured health plans as a way to drive down costs. This legislation would bring more members into a county’s self-insured plan and will spread the risk across a wider number of employees, reducing costs accordingly. The Assembly sponsor is Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Colonie.

Heroin is our newest epidemic. It’s readily available and costs less than other street drugs, which has contributed to its meteoric rise in popularity over the past year.

Heroin does not discriminate. It makes addicts out of the young and old, the rich and the poor, the unemployed and the employed.

Heroin abuse is not just a drug addict’s problem. It’s a community problem. Heroin use creates “spinoff crimes.” Addicts are shoplifting, stealing and burglarizing homes to pay for their high, which decreases everyone’s quality of life.

“The Board of Regents has failed our students, our parents and our teachers in its handling of the implementation of the Common Core curriculum. I said last week that I would stand with my constituents and not vote for any incumbent seeking election to the Board of Regents. Today, I made good on that promise.

Senator Griffo discusses Olympian Erin Hamlin, the governor's Adirondack Challenge, the flawed implementation of Common Core, his opposition to taxpayer-funded college for state inmates, and the Senate's budget with host Julia Lilkendey.

Mark your calendars for March 22-23 and March 29-30. Maple Weekend is almost upon us!

This is your chance to get a first-hand look at how maple products are made, from the tree tap to the table. New York is the nation's second largest maple producer, producing a whopping 18 percent of America's entire output.

Senator Patty Ritchie, Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and members of the Senate Republican Conference today unveiled their “Young Farmers NY” plan to address issues related to the advancing average age of New York farmers and to preserve the future of family farming.

ALBANY – Sen. Joseph A. Griffo today called on his colleagues in the state Legislature to re-design its process for appointing Board of Regents members, in light of systemic failures in the implementation of the Common Core curriculum.

“Regents board members control the state’s educational system, determine all its policies and appoint the commissioner of education,” said Griffo. “Frankly, the process of selecting an appropriate Regents member is too important to be decided by a single vote of the entire Legislature.”

ROME – Sen. Joseph A. Griffo and Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi jointly announced today that the state has awarded $600,000 to Griffiss International Airport to cover a portion of Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR)’s start-up operating costs.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently selected Griffiss International Airport as one of six national sites for drone aircraft development. The airport has teamed with NUAIR, an alliance of 40 private, academic and military institutions, to lead research and testing to determine how drone aircraft can be integrated into the national airspace.

Gov. Cuomo’s proposal to use taxpayer dollars to provide a college education to state prisoners has provoked a lot of passionate responses from my constituents.

I don’t support the proposal and my reasoning is two-fold.

First, it’s not appropriate to offer a benefit to an inmate that we don’t also offer to every law-abiding student who is eligible for college. I don’t support initiatives that make prison more attractive to criminals, because people shouldn’t be rewarded for breaking the law.